North Carolina Pharmaceutical Factory

KINSTON, N.C. (AP) - An explosion and fire erupted at a
pharmaceutical company's factory Wednesday afternoon, killing at
least three people and leaving the building a shattered ruin marked
by flames and a column of black smoke.
Two bodies were removed from the twisted debris of the West
Pharmaceutical Services Inc. plant and the third body was being
taken out late Wednesday, said Chief Deral Raynor of the North
Lenoir Fire Department, the scene commander.
"We have a technical rescue team in there lifting some steel.
That victim is deceased," said Greg Smith, operations chief of the
Kinston Public Safety Department.
Raynor said about 130 people were at the plant at the time of
the explosion and he believed they had all been accounted for, but
Smith said it was still too early to tell.
They also said they had no information about whether any victims
had died after being taken to hospitals. Lenoir Memorial Hospital
in Kinston reported one person was dead on arrival, but county
emergency services director Roger Dail said that person was one of
the three counted at the scene.
Injured victims were scattered among local hospitals and the
North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center in Chapel Hill, but none except
Lenior reported any other deaths as of midnight Wednesday.
The family of missing plant worker William Gray waited late into
the night for news at nearby Immanuel Baptist Church, long after
other employees had been reunited with tearful relatives and gone
home.
"We're just scared," sister-in-law Carolyn Epps said.
Grief-stricken wailing could be heard from inside the church a
short time after the death toll was announced, and the despondent
family soon left without talking to reporters.
The devastated building continued to burn into the night, hours
after the 1:27 p.m. explosion. The factory's condition made it hard
to get a handle on the degree of the situation's severity, Smith
said.
"The damage is catastrophic to the building," he said. "The
structure is so compromised that you just can't enter and walk
around."
He said debris was three to four feet deep in parts of the
building.
The first emergency crews on the scene repeatedly rescued plant
workers who were dangling from steel beams in the rear section of
the building.
Sampson Heath, a worker who sterilized rubber for medical
products, said he was on the other side of the plant when the
explosion sent a plume of fire toward his work station and knocked
him off his feet.
When he stood up, wires and tiles were hanging from the ceiling
and he could hear trapped co-workers screaming for help.
"Your life did flash before your eyes," Heath said as he stood
in the yard of a nearby church getting hugs and kisses from
relatives.
The cause of the explosion was not immediately known. The
factory employs about 225 people making syringe plungers and IV
fitments, according to West Pharmaceutical's Web site.
"We don't know if they had a gas buildup or it was a chemical
explosion," Raynor said.
At least 37 people were injured, though 11 of them were treated
and released, according to information from hospitals compiled by
the Red Cross.
The blast was felt for miles. Hugh Pollock, headmaster of nearby
Arendell Parrott Academy, said windows in his building burst from
their frames and one child was cut on the head by broken glass. The
private school was evacuated.
West Pharmaceutical Services Inc., based in Lionville, Pa., near
Philadelphia, makes pharmaceutical delivery and medical devices.
West Pharmaceutical president Don Morel said he and a crisis
management team were heading to the scene late Wednesday. "Our
overriding concern lies with the well-being and safety of our
employees, their loved ones and the surrounding community," he
said.
The factory is close to the Global Transpark, a onetime
commercial airstrip now used mainly by military aircraft.
Christopher White, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation
Administration in Atlanta, said no aircraft were involved.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration,
the plant was inspected in October, cited for numerous safety
violations and fined about $10,000. The inspection is still
considered open, meaning that violations could be added or deleted
from the final record. Juan Santos, a spokesman for state
Department of Labor, said the initial fine was reduced to $9,075 in
an informal settlement Jan. 8.
"We're satisfied with the company's response to the inspection
we did this fall," state Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry said.
North Carolina is the site of one of the nation's worst
workplace disasters: Twenty-four employees and a delivery man died
and 56 people were injured in a 1991 fire sparked when hydraulic
fluid from a conveyor belt sprayed over a gas-fired chicken fryer
at Roe's Imperial Food Products plant in Hamlet.
---
On the Net:
West Pharmaceutical Services: http://www.westpharma.com
City of Kinston: http://www.ci.kinston.nc.us/

Additional

KINSTON, N.C. (AP) - Flames licked through an unstable grid of
twisted debris as investigators turned to eyewitnesses for the
first clues to what caused an explosion that tore apart a
pharmaceutical factory.
At least three people were killed in the blast Wednesday at the
West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. plant.
Chief Deral Raynor of the North Lenoir Fire Department said
about 130 people were at the plant when it exploded at 1:27 p.m.
Authorities believed, but were unsure, that all were accounted for
Wednesday night.
Flames and debris flew high in the air and the concussion was
felt for miles.
Joseph Moore, an 18-year veteran molder, was working near the
rear door. He was struck on the head by ceiling tiles and other
debris, but uninjured.
"I just shook that off, and grabbed somebody and got out as
fast as I could," he said at Immanuel Baptist Church, where
factory workers went to meet their families.
Thick, acrid smoke that poured from the building well into the
night was dampened overnight by light, intermittent rain, but
flames persisted in the most damaged area.
The cause was not immediately known. Greg Smith, operations
chief of the Kinston Public Safety Department, said the blast
occurred in a four-story area of the factory where chemicals are
mixed.
"The explosion was in the back of the plant. It blew windows
out of the front," he said.
Roger Dail, Lenoir County's emergency services director, said
officials asked plant workers to return to the scene Thursday to
talk to investigators.
Carolyn Merritt, chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board,
said her team would talk to the workers to "try to determine what
processes were going on and what chemicals were being used."
The independent federal agency's review could take from six
months to a year. The FBI, State Bureau of Investigation,
Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and other agencies
also sent investigators.
It was hard to measure the scope of the disaster, Smith said:
"The damage is catastrophic to the building. The structure is so
compromised that you just can't enter and walk around."
He said rubble - mostly chunks of concrete block and metal
shards - was knee-deep in parts of the plant.
The factory employs about 225 people making syringe plungers and
IV fitments, according to West Pharmaceutical's Web site.
At least 37 people were injured, though 11 of them were treated
and released, according to hospital data compiled by the Red Cross.
The victims were scattered among area hospitals and at least a
half-dozen critically injured people were taken to the North
Carolina Jaycee Burn Center in Chapel Hill.
West Pharmaceutical Services Inc., based in Lionville, Pa., near
Philadelphia, makes pharmaceutical delivery and medical devices.
Company president Don Morel was heading to the scene late
Wednesday.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said the plant
was inspected in October, cited for numerous safety violations and
fined about $10,000, which was reduced to about $9,000 early this
month. The violations included problems with its electrical systems
design, wiring and use; portable fire extinguishers; hazardous
waste operations; and communications.
Since 1993, OSHA has inspected 443 similar facilities and found
an average of nearly six violations per site, compared with 15
violations at West Pharmaceutical.
---
On the Net:
West Pharmaceutical Services: http://www.westpharma.com
City of Kinston: http://www.ci.kinston.nc.us/

NC Plant Fire

Onslow County fire and EMS crews were standing by Wednesday for a call to help rescuers in Lenoir County handle an explosion that rocked West Pharmaceutical Services and left an undetermined number of people dead and dozens missing or injured.

The county had five fire engines, four paramedic ambulances and four basic life support ambulances equipped and ready to help if needed, said Don Decker, assistant Emergency Services Director. Onslow County personnel and volunteer firefighters remained on alert into Wednesday night.

Decker said officials in Lenior County did not immediately request Onslow County to send crews, but they asked what kind of equipment and personnel the county could provide.

“Basically, what we are doing is we are standing by for these folks,” he said. “Camp Lejeune is prepared to provide mutual aid in the county in the event one of our crews gets pulled out of county or we get stretched thin.”

Rescuers from scores of agencies in surrounding counties were also waiting for a call to help. West Pharmaceutical Services. employed more than 200 people, many from areas in Onslow, Jones and Duplin counties. The company makes syringe plungers and IV filaments, according to the company’s Web site.

The number of Onslow-area injured was not immediately known.

Marines from Cherry Point Air Station were among those summoned to the fire early Wednesday afternoon.

Pedro, Cherry Point’s CH-46 Sea Knight search and rescue helicopter, was called out to assist the recovery effort at about 2 p.m. and remained on the scene into the evening, said Capt. Bruce Frame, a Cherry Point spokesman.

Frame said the helicopter’s four-member crew was called to assist in the transportation of victims to area hospitals.

But at about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Frame said he hadn’t heard whether Pedro had taken any injured victims from the site of the burning pharmaceutical plant.

Officials in Kinston, which is about 60 miles from the air station, had requested no other help from Cherry Point as of Wednesday evening, Frame said.

While emergency crews were on standby, medical personnel from Onslow Memorial Hospital’s emergency department were in contact with Lenoir Memorial Hospital to see if any assistance was needed. Lenoir County officials had sent word to burn centers in Chapel Hill and Durham that their help might be utilized.

“Our understanding is they can handle it there,” said Ed Piper, the chief executive officer of the Onslow County Hospital Authority. “They don’t see a need to transport anyone out, except for those who need critical care.”

The Onslow County Chapter of the American Red Cross was trying to round up volunteers Wednesday night for possible action in Lenoir County today.

Joy Branham, a volunteer with the Onslow County Chapter of the American Red Cross, said anyone that would like to donate blood may do so at Infant of Prague Catholic Church on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.